Rafael wants Mayweather to fight Danny Garcia next

By Dan Ambrose: If ESPN’s Dan Rafael gets his way, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) will be facing WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia next in May rather than Adrien Broner, Amir Khan, Devon Alexander or Marcos Maidana. Rafael thinks Garcia is an exciting fighter and the most qualified to be facing Mayweather fight now due to his wins over a past his prime Erik Morales, as well as his wins over Amir Khan, and Lucas Matthysse.

Rafael said to ESPN “Garcia has shown he can rise to the occasion. Maybe, just maybe, he could do it again against Mayweather…Garcia is an exciting fighter…Garcia has earned his opportunity more than the other candidates under consideration to challenge for Mayweather’s welterweight crown.”

I disagree completely with all of that. Garcia hasn’t earned anything. He beat a shot Erik Morales, and he clinched his way to a win against Matthysse last Saturday night. Garcia should have been penalized 3 or 4 times for excessive holding by the referee working the fight if he was on his J-O-B, and the referee told screwed up by giving Garcia credit for a knockdown where he shoved Matthysse into the ropes and hit him while he stuck caught in between the ropes.

The knockdown shouldn’t have counted and Garcia should have lost points for holding all night. If Garcia wants to fight Matthysse again and prove that he can without holding, then I wouldn’t mind considering Garcia for Mayweather, but ONLY if he beats Matthysse in a fair and square manner.

A Garcia-Mayweather fight wouldn’t be entertaining Mayweather would have Garcia holding him all night long and that would be too ugly for fans. Garcia blew his chance for the Mayweather fight by electing to fight in a manner that I’ve only seen from guys like John Ruiz and Bernard Hopkins.

To me, the more exciting fight for Mayweather would be for him to fight Broner, Maidana, Matthysse or Khan. Those four guys are the better fights for Mayweather. Matthysse should be considered because he has a much more exciting style of fighting than Danny Garcia and he would make it interesting for fans. I don’t care if Broner’s not a huge star right now, he’s more of a star than Danny Garcia, so that’s enough for me to pick the more popular Broner over Danny for the Mayweathr fight. Maidana likes to slug it out, and so we wouldn’t have to worry about any ugly holding from him if he were to fight Mayweather.

Keith Thurman is better than any of those guys, but he might not be considered for the fight because he’s a big welterweight who balloons up in weight after he rehydrates for his fights. I could see Thurman fighting in the 170s against Mayweather.